Last season, the New Orleans Saints’ defense ranked 23rd in the NFL in total defense as they allowed 339.5 yards per game.
The Saints also surrendered 24.6 points per contest, which ranked 26th in the league in scoring defense.
In short, the Saints’ defense wasn’t nearly good enough.
Now, they’re banking on the addition of hard-nosed defensive coordinator Gregg Williams to instill a little toughness on defense, according to Pat Yasinksas of ESPN.com.
“I think his style of football is one that breeds confidence and almost borderline arrogance out there that ‘We’re going to come after you and get you,’” Saints quarterback Drew Brees told ESPN.com. “I love that attitude. … They’re trying to build a confidence and a swagger.”
Other than firing defensive coordinator Gary Gibbs and replacing him with Williams, the Saints haven’t exactly stood pat.
Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis re-signed linebacker Jonathan Vilma, drafted Ohio State cornerback Malcolm Jenkins in the first round and signed the following veteran free agents: defensive end Paul Spicer, cornerback Jabari Greer and safety Darren Sharper.
Plus, linebacker Dan Morgan ended a one-year retirement brought about by injury issues.
Per the report, Saints coach Sean Payton made sure that Williams came to New Orleans by giving up $250,000 off his annual salary to be given to Williams.
That’s a major statement of confidence considering that Williams’ defense was a disappointment last season with the Jacksonville Jaguars, ranking 17th in the league overall.
“He’s a good leader,” Payton said of Williams. “He’s a guy that, outside of the scheme aspect of football, his defenses played real hard. That’s something you can see on film and it’s something that we’re having a chance to see now and that’s one of the reasons we wanted to hire him.”
Saints' Defense Looking to Rebound
Posted by NBC Sports on May 23, 2009, 6:38 PM EST
14 Responses to “Saints' Defense Looking to Rebound”
How is the Saints defense going to look without Will Allen and Charles Smith the first 4 games of the 2009 season?
Should have taken their suspensions in 2008 instead of throwing the 2009 Saints season into the trash can.
I see the same old, same old from NO in 2009 – another .500 season at best.
Duh, the Jags gave up Marcus Stroud. That’s why they sucked.
“I think his style of football is one that breeds confidence and almost borderline arrogance out there that ‘We’re going to come after you and get you,’”
…they sure got to the QB in Washington & Jacksonville!
If the defensive ends can’t get pressure on the QB, just go ahead and put your backs on suicide watch. They can only cover for so long. We didn;t have the personnel. Because we lost our entire O line last year this guy and his fancy defense wasn’t even a story. Good luck to the Saints! We’re happy, hope you’re happy.
I would of loved to have a 17th ranked D compared to what we had for the past 3 years. Im not a coach but even I know that you can’t leave jason david on a island against another teams top WR. By the way JoeMcRugby……its Will Smith and Charles Grant.
0-4 start without Grant and the Fresh Prince . . .
The Saints defense will always be bad because Sean Payton still thinks like an offensive coordinator instead of a head coach. Ever notice that teams with great defenses almost always have a ball control offense?
That’s because any defense will give up yards and points when it is constantly on the field. The Saints are always in the mindset of trying to score 50 points. They will score their points but at the cost of putting that defense on the field more than they should.
The Saints other problem is Reggie Bush. The Saints spend way too much time trying to get the ball to Bush. That would be fine if he was actually a great player like Brian Westbrook. But he’s just a glorified 3rd down back who doesn’t do much more than a guy like Mewelde Moore.
I’m sure if the Steelere designed their whole offense around trying to set up Mewelde Moore, he’d put up the same approximate stats as Bush, probably better since Moore can actually run between the tackles.
@Dont Taze Me Bro
Well said
I’m telling everyone right now, if the injury bug doesn’t hit the Saints, this is one team to watch out for. Seems like every year a couple really good teams get the injury bug that hurts them and they don’t do well. The only real problem I see with this team is Grant and Smith being suspended for the first 4 games.
This defense will be alot better this year, maybe not top 10 but close. They will cause turnovers which will give the offense better field position. I don’t think the offense will run up as many yards, but I think they will put up more points.
Florio, you keep saying Payton is on the hot seat this year. I will bet you everything I own that no matter how they do this year, he is safe. He still has 4 years left on his contract, and Tom Benson is known to be cheap, plus with all of his new investments to keep the Saints in Louisiana, we won’t have the money to pay 2 head coaches. Out of all the head coaches in the league, I would say he has one of the safest seats in the league. He has at least 2 more years on the safe side.
The Saints lost six games last year by a combined eighteen points. If the defense could have somehow held a lead in only half of those games they would have been 11-5 instead of 8-8. (Washington game, two TD’s in fourth quarter, Minnesota game unanswered TD and FG in fourth quarter, second Tampa game field goal to basically end game, Chicago game field goal to end regulation and in overtime for win, second Carolina game field goal to end game. There are five games there they could have easily won with a little better defensive play.)
The offense should be fine. If the defense can be just a little better than average the Saints can win between 10 and 12 games in 2009 and return to the playoffs.
Same old same old in New Orleans. 8-8 with scores of 41-34 all season long…
ron7098:…and Tom Benson is known to be cheap
To whom and how? He gave Mike Ditka an extension the year before he fired him, gave Jim Haslett an extension a couple years before he fired him, he hasn’t (publicly) said “no” to going after a free agent because of $ reasons. If anything, he doesn’t spend money wisely. But he isn’t cheap.
>>The Saints defense will always be bad because Sean Payton still thinks like an offensive coordinator instead of a head coach. Ever notice that teams with great defenses almost always have a ball control offense?>>
“Almost always,” there are exceptions, the 49ers offense was supposed to be a ball control offense, but they scored a lot of points and had one of the most underrated defenses, ever. If the Saints could just stop somebody at critical times, it would be an improvement. We know the days of the Dome Patrol are over, just stop someone.
While we’re on the subject of the Saints, i’d also like to point out that Sean Payton gets way too much credit for what he’s done there.
People say he turned around a 3-13 team and got them to the playoffs. That’s crap. The main reason that Saints team was 3-13 was because of Katrina. It was a waasted season. The previous year, the Saints were 8-8 and that was with unreliable Aaron Brooks at QB.
In reality, Payton inherited an 8-8 team, and they upgraded the QB position in a huge way with Drew Brees. Sorry if i don’t consider Payton a miracle worker. He’s just 2 games over .500 in his 3 seasons. His biggest achievement so far is in fantasy football, not NFL football.
Payton is way too concerned with talking heads calling him brilliant for all the different ways he uses Reggie Bush. Payton’s first year was his best year. That was Bush’s first year as well and Bush was just a role player in the offense. Next year Payton made Bush the focal point and threw everything out of whack.